Post on 03-Jun-2020
transcript
IGNITE PASSION FOR LEARNING & ACHIEVEMENTThrough Professional Development
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How a school in Hawaii moved from chronic underperformance based on state assessments to growth in teacher practice
and reflection through a sustained commitment to Corwin’s Visible Learningplus
professional development program.
THE EVERY STUDENT SUCCEEDS ACT, signed into law December
2015, aims to overhaul K-12 education in the United States. Among the
provisions of the law are greater decision-making authority to the states
and renewed investment in professional development. ESSA provides more
than $2 billion for training programs and puts new emphasis on sustained,
personalized, job-embedded activities for teachers and school leaders.
This policy change is a positive step toward turning schools around.
But educators know that for school reform to have a lasting effect,
change has to happen from within. Teachers, leaders and other staff need
to adopt new skills, knowledge and behavior to achieve better results for
their particular environment. And the way to do that is
through professional development.
What are the tenets of effective professional
development? Put simply, it goes beyond the
traditional one-day workshop to create meaningful
experiences that change and improve instruction.
IGNITE PASSION FOR LEARNING & ACHIEVEMENT THROUGH PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Educators know that for school reform to have a lasting effect,
change has to happen from within.
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High-quality professional development is designed to:
• Engage teachers as active participants,
not passive spectators;
• Address the specific needs of the school
and students;
• Encourage collaboration among school staff;
• Tap internal expertise—coaches—to embed
real-world authenticity into the experience; and
• Use outside expertise for a nonbiased
assessment of the situation.
The best professional development recognizes
that achieving change is a long-term process.
It sets priorities that make sense for the school
and its participants and that have the potential
for the greatest effect.
This SmartBrief white paper, sponsored by Corwin,
outlines the principles of effective professional
development and presents the Visible Learning
research, conducted by John Hattie, researcher
and professor of education in Australia. We will
also look at a school in Hawaii that was able to
improve instruction and restore morale to its
teaching staff through the Visible Learningplus
professional development program.
WHAT INFLUENCES ACHIEVEMENT?
JOHN HATTIE has long researched performance
indicators and evaluation in education.
His research, Visible Learning, is the culmination
of more than 25 years of examining and
synthesizing more than 1,000 meta-analyses,
comprising more than 50,000 individual studies.
His goal was to understand what factors influenced
student achievement. He came up with more than
150 variables—including class size, curriculum,
type of school, instructional method and the use
of technology, among others—which he stated can
be addressed in a way that enables them to have
a positive effect on education.
Hattie wanted to understand which variables were
the most important. Although “almost everything
we do improves learning,” why not prioritize the
ones that will have the greatest effect? Hattie
set about calculating a score or “effect size” for
each, according to its bearing on student learning
and taking into account such aspects as its cost
to implement. The average effect size was 0.4,
a marker that represented a year’s growth per year
of schooling for a student. Anything above 0.4 would
have a greater positive effect on student learning.
Hattie’s discovery? Teachers who understand their
effect on students topped the list. Second was
showing students what success looks like.
High-Impact Effects
Low-Impact Effects
Response To Intervention (RTI) (ES = 1.07)
Summer Vacation (ES = -0.02)
Formative Teacher Evaluation (ES = 0.90)
Micro-Teaching (ES = 0.88)
Retention (ES = -0.13)
RTI is a highly effective educational approach that provides systematic support for struggling learners. Through early intervention and by closely monitoring progress, RTI helps increase academic success.
Formative teacher evaluation provides the information needed to adjust teaching and learning on the fly. Schools that provide this type of feedback tend to have a culture focused on improvement.
Much like athletes, teachers can use video as a tool to improve their technique and performance. “Micro-teaching” is a useful technique to improve effectiveness in the classroom and drive professional growth.
The research shows that students lose some achievement gains over the summer. Teachers can quickly recapture the losses from summer break in the first month of the school year by being attuned to student’s proficiencies when they enter the classroom.
The overall effect of homework on student achievement is slightly positive, but there are some important moderators. Homework has a higher effect on high school students (0.64), while it has a low effect on elementary students (0.15).
Deep content knowledge has not been proven to be influential because teaching frequently occurs at the surface level. Expert teachers organize and use their content knowledge to make meaningful connections.
Research shows that repeating a grade has a negative effect on
student achievement. It’s also negatively correlated with
social and emotional adjustment, behavior,
and self-concept.
Student Visible Learning (ES = 1.44)
The #1 most effective method for improving achievement is giving students 100% visibility into what they are learning. Assessment-capable learners self-assess their own learning and demonstrate a number of key metacognitive strategies.
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100%
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Teacher Subject Matter Knowledge (ES = 0.09)
Homework (ES = 0.29)
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136
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148
Classroom Discussion (ES = 0.82)
Classroom discussion creates an environment where everyone can learn from each other. Students develop communication skills, while teachers see that students are learning the concepts being taught.
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Reducing class size affects achievement only marginally, because teaching practices rarely change when teachers move from larger to smaller classes.
Class Size (ES = 0.21)
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Hattie teamed up with Cognition Education Ltd., a New Zealand professional learning
company, to define a five-phase “impact cycle” that lays out the stages for teachers
to understand the effect of their efforts through Visible Learning:
1.Determine current student outcomes, including what the student’s learning
needs are and what the concept of “impact” means within the specific school.
2.Examine educators’ knowledge and skills to understand what their
personal-learning needs are in relation to the student needs.
3.Change actions, by identifying the required actions and behaviors
in planning and implementation.
4.Evaluate impact, by gathering evidence to monitor and assess
the outcome of the teaching on the learning.
5.Renew the cycle, by planning for “Where to next?” by using tools, leader
input and teacher-gathered evidence to understand the current situation.
In 2014, Corwin became the exclusive provider of on-site Visible Learning professional
development for schools in the United States and Canada.
WHAT IS VISIBLE LEARNING?
VISIBLE LEARNING makes student learning
visible to teachers so they know what effect
they have on the learning. It also refers to making
teaching visible to the student, so students can
learn to become their own teachers—a vital aspect
of preparing them for lifelong learning.
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1. I’m an evaluator. My fundamental task is
to evaluate the effect of my teaching
on students’ learning and achievement,
or “know thy impact.”
2. I’m a change agent. The success (and failure)
of my students’ learning is about
what I do or don’t do.
3. I talk about “learning” much more than
“teaching.” That keeps the student
at the center of the conversation.
4. Assessment shows me my effect.
All assessments, including formative
assessments, are a reflection of my effort
more than the students’.
5. I teach through dialogue, not monologue.
That involves listening much more
than talking.
10 PRACTICES FOR
DEVELOPING VISIBLE
LEARNERSHattie developed this list of 10
“mindframes”—ways of thinking—that teachers and school
leaders bring to their jobs that help them have a powerful effect
on student learning.
6. I take on challenges and don’t fear failure.
As Hattie likes to say, making errors
is the best way to learn.
7. I develop positive relationships
in the class and in my school.
8. I use our school’s common “language”of learning
among both students and teachers to
achieve the ideas of Visible Learning.
9. I recognize that learning is hard work.
Pulling off the previous eight mindframes
is tough; acknowledging that point can
help us empathize with the learner.
10. I collaborate. While teamwork is essential
to 21st-century learning, adults don’t
do it nearly as well as students.
It’s something worth working on,
says Hattie, who added this latest
mind frame to his list in 2015.
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BRINGING BACK PASSION TO TEACHING: KA’IMILOA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
KA’IMILOA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, a K-6
school on the island of Oahu in Hawaii,
has seen its share of reform efforts. The school
has the highest percentage of low-income and
English Language Learners in its complex area.
(Hawaii officially has a single school district,
run by the state’s Department of Education.
However the statewide system is divided into
seven districts, each of which is divided into
complex areas. Ka’imiloa is part of the Leeward
District and the Campbell Complex Area.)
As principal Debra Hatada explains, Ka’imiloa’s
achievement scores wavered throughout the
No Child Left Behind (NCLB) era. In Hawaii’s
Department of Education parlance, the
school’s classification shifted from “Planning
for Restructuring” to “In Good Standing” to
“Continuous Improvement” to “Focus School.”
Focus schools—those that fall into the lowest-
performing 15%—are required to pursue
programs designed to turn them around. Those
programs most recently concentrated on data
collection and analysis.
In early 2014, the superintendent of Ka’imiloa’s
complex area approached the principals of her
three focus schools with an alternative. As Hatada
recalls, “Her comment was, ‘I know that your
school knows all about best teaching practices
because I’ve seen it in your school’s classrooms.
Perhaps what is needed is to know what few
best practices teachers can really focus in on.’ “
The superintendent proposed bringing Visible
Learningplus professional development to each
school’s leadership team.
Hatada jumped at the opportunity, considering
it a gift. “While I had read about John Hattie’s
research and his meta-analysis studies, there was
never an opportunity nor did I know about the
training,” says Hatada. “What I did know was that
Ka’imiloa, as a former America’s Choice school,
was all about best teaching practices.” What she
read and heard in Hattie’s writings and YouTube
videos resonated with her.
Teacher morale had plummeted with NCLB.
Hatada saw her staff of educators suffering from
initiative fatigue. What appealed to her about
Visible Learningplus was how it wasn’t simply another
initiative. It was a way for teachers to re-examine
the mindset they brought to their activities.
Hatada believed that bringing Visible Learningplus
professional development to her teachers “would
breathe life back into our classrooms and, certainly,
bring back the passion to the craft of teaching.”
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CREATING A SPARK
WHAT HATADA and her new vice principal,
Mariko Yorimoto, came to realize was that
Visible Learning might provide the spark they
needed to change the culture of the school.
“No matter what staff development we bring in,
if you don’t fix the heart of the school, nothing
will stick,” Yorimoto asserts. Visible Learningplus
offered a reminder to people about why they
became educators in the first place: “to impact
someone’s life positively.”
To strike the spark, a Corwin Visible Learningplus
consultant delivered two days of “foundation”
professional development to all the Ka’imiloa
teachers to help them understand the basics,
such as the terminology. The school followed that
up with a leadership session for Hatada, Yorimoto
and the school’s six instructional coaches to go
more deeply into the Visible Learning philosophy.
To get a sense of baseline data, the school
leaders went out and asked students, “What are
you learning today? What makes an effective
learner?” They took footage of students who
“really didn’t know what made an effective
learner. They didn’t know what the lessons were
for the day. They didn’t know what the outcomes
of the lessons should have been.” Their intent
was to go back at the end of the school year and
question those same students.
GAINING MOMENTUM
THE SCHOOL LEADERS rolled out
a program of continual staff development
on Wednesday afternoons to help the teachers
embed Visible Learning into their efforts.
The principal and vice principal began weaving
Visible Learning terminology and practices
into conversations with their teachers during
classroom observations.
They also sought volunteers to form a committee
to help promote Visible Learning and quickly
attracted 14 takers out of 41 classroom teachers.
Whereas the teachers had become accustomed
to initiatives being mandated “top-down,” the
Visible Learningplus program encouraged teachers
to generate the momentum themselves.
CHANGING ACTIONS
THE SCHOOL BEGAN CELEBRATING in
flamboyant ways. Yorimoto issued navy blue
T-shirts to every staff member, from cafeteria
workers to aides to teachers, declaring the
Visible Learning golden rule: “Know thy impact.”
For the staff-development sessions, grade-level
teachers would host the refreshments and play
up Visible Learning themes, such as dips labeled,
“Sink your mind into one of the mindframes.”
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Near the end of the school year, the
committee realized that many teachers still had
misconceptions about Visible Learningplus.
Some, for example, viewed it as “another to-do
on the list,” says Yorimoto. Others “saw it as
a program where you got curriculum.”
To tighten the connection between Ka’imiloa’s
teachers and Visible Learningplus, the committee
decided to focus on making connections to the
GLOs. These are the state’s General Learner Outcomes, which apply to all students across
all grade levels and around which teachers
build rubrics for student assessment:
• To be a self-directed learner;
• To be a community contributor;
• To be a complex thinker;
• To be a quality producer;
• To be an effective communicator; and
• To be an effective and ethical user
of technology.
Instead of being an additional initiative
on top of GLO, Visible Learningplus
provided the teachers with a mindset for
approaching and prioritizing their work
on the learning outcomes.
EVALUATING IMPACT
IN 2015-2016, the Visible Learning committee is
taking its efforts further by focusing specifically
on the fourth GLO: being a quality producer.
Because Visible Learning is intended to engage
the student in his or her own teaching, feedback
becomes a crucial part of the student learning
process on the way to becoming a quality
producer. As Hattie writes, feedback needs to help
answer three overlapping questions: Where am
I going? (What are my goals?); how am I going?
(What’s my performance against those goals?);
and where to next? (What are my future goals?)
According to Yorimoto,
the values of Visible Learning
are now so embedded in the
school culture, those questions
can be answered even by
the youngest learners at her
school. “If I were to go into
a kindergarten class and say,
‘Where are you going?’
they may not know the
verbiage, but they can
articulate the philosophy
behind it or the practice.”
The students also quickly
picked up on the idea of the “pit” as a metaphor
for the learning journey. That’s where you are,
explains Yorimoto, when you don’t understand
something and you’re stuck.
Hatada believed that bringing Visible Learningplus
personal development to her teachers “would breathe
life back into our classrooms and, certainly, bring back the passion
to the craft of teaching.”
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PUTTING VISIBLE
LEARNING IN PLACE
Visible Learning can be “staged.” One of Ka’imiloa’s successes has been that the school has gradually layered in additional support over time
as teachers became ready, which has helped staff make connections and not feel overwhelmed.
Having leadership on board was critical for Ka’imiloa at both the complex area level and the school level. Hatada and her leadership team took ownership of the content and ran with it. However, once momentum began, they encouraged teachers to volunteer as leaders of the program.
Not everyone will get on board right away. Teachers want proof and want to experience whatever’s new for themselves rather than simply buying into what others say. By introducing the Visible Learning committee, consisting of people across all grade levels and school positions, and empowering it to set direction and speed, Ka’imiloa was able to help the whole school move forward.
You’ll know that Visible Learning is taking root when teachers begin working across grade levels. Because their professional development has given them a common vocabulary, “they’re talking about the same things,” says Yorimoto. “A second-grade teacher can share the kind of activity they’re doing to promote feedback with the kindergarten teacher because it’s an instructional practice that should be across the board.”
Don’t expect quick change, but once change arrives, expect it to be powerful. As Yorimoto explains, “This is going to take time. As long as you implement it with fidelity, with collective efficacy, when your group of teachers is working together for one common goal with the same attitude and the same input of energy, you’ll see tremendous growth.”
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But through perseverance—reviewing the learning
target, thinking about how the lesson matches the
task, using resources, asking friends, and finally
as a last recourse, asking teachers—the students
climb their way back out.
“We see behaviors where before [students]
would give up on challenges or not want to
do a challenge, and now they are expecting a
challenge, they are looking for a challenge,” says
Tammie Richardson, a special-education teacher
for grades four and five. “Before, they would turn
to the teacher right away if they needed help. Now
they know what the resources are, how to get out
of the pit. They talk to their neighbors, they have
conversations, they give each other feedback. It’s a
lot more student-directed than teacher-directed.”
While the anecdotal evidence surfacing among
teachers and students has convinced Hatada and
Yorimoto that the school is heading in the right
direction, Ka’imiloa hasn’t given up its data roots,
either. While the data are still soft, teachers no
longer view data as bad. Yorimoto explains that
they now view assessment data “as feedback to
us. If it’s not for the data, we don’t know if what
we’re doing is the right thing.”
For example, Richardson is working on defining
“assessment-capable Visible Learning” for her
students. That will require developing clear criteria
and clear learning targets that will allow students
to do self-assessments and give her an entry point
for sharing her feedback with students in a way
that will help them get out of the pit and help her
perform her own self-check.
RENEWING THE CYCLE
KA’IMILOA HAS APPROACHED professional
development for Visible Learning in phases.
The first year focused on true basics, such as
building a shared vocabulary with which to have
conversations about learning. The second year has
focused on implementation and giving teachers
room to try out their new wings. Now, the adoption
of Visible Learning is shifting into overdrive, and
at each stage, the school’s Visible Learningplus
professional development consultant has been
there to help it prepare for the next level.
While the initial training for Visible Learning was
paid for by the complex area superintendent, all
subsequent professional development, substitute
days, stipend and resources have been covered
under the school’s Title I and Weighted Student
Formula budget. As Hatada observes, while
those budget expenditures must be approved
by either the Title I Office or the Department of
Education Procurement Office, the school has
never been denied the request to use a portion
of its professional development dollars for Visible
Learningplus services. She hopes that support will
continue and even be made easier as additional
schools adopt the training and services from
Corwin and as it becomes a mainstay on the state’s
education-procurement list.
Whereas the teachers had become accustomed to initiatives being mandated “top-down,”
the Visible Learningplus program encouraged teachers to generate the momentum themselves.
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MAKING LEARNING VISIBLE
KA’IMILOA’S TEACHERS have embraced the Visible Learning
“movement,” Hatada says, “supporting each other and celebrating their
students’ emerging voices.” During that journey, the school has brought on
new teachers and new school leaders, all of whom have quickly been swept
up in the momentum set in place by a core group of educators who are
committed to “supporting every student in becoming that Visible Learner.”
Undertaking the work hasn’t been easy. “I think in this first year, we’ve made a
lot of mistakes as teachers and as a leadership team. What we’re finding out
is that, hey, when you make the mistakes, that’s when you learn, too,” says
Hatada. But the growth is apparent as well. “We walk through the classrooms
and ask students the same three questions: What are you learning today? How
do you know if you learned it? And the most important question: Why are you
learning this? We see a difference in the answers we’re getting from students.
Kids know what they are
supposed to be learning. We
see that teachers have more
clarity in the lessons they
are teaching. The learning
intentions or learning targets
are there.”
Recently, the principal spoke
with numerous school leaders
who wanted to learn more
about her school’s experiences with Visible Learningplus. The most common
question participants asked was, “How hard will it be to implement with
all that is on the school’s and teachers’ plates?” Her response: “It is hard
work because teaching and learning is hard work. But it’s the best and most
rewarding hard work any school can take on, simply because we are focusing
on best teaching practices that will make an impact on student learning, and
John Hattie has shown us the evidence in research to prove it.”
Ka’imiloa’s teachers have embraced the Visible Learning “movement,” Hatada says,
“supporting each other and celebrating their students’ emerging voices.”
ABOUTCorwin has one mission: to enhance education through intentional
professional learning. We build long-term relationships with our authors,
educators, clients, and associations who partner with us to develop and
continuously improve the best, evidence-based practices that establish
and support lifelong learning. Corwin is the exclusive provider of Visible
Learningplus seminars, institutes, training, and consulting in North America
and Australia. Learn more at www.corwin.com/VisibleLearning
Visible Learningplus is the trademark of, and is distributed under license
from, Cognition Education Limited.
ABOUTServing more than 5.8 million senior executives, thought leaders and
industry professionals, SmartBrief is the leading online publisher of
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SmartBrief filters thousands of sources daily to deliver the most relevant
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